Course DescriptionWhen I first designed this course, "queer" was a word that raised
many hackles and generated a fair amount of discomfort. With at least two
hit TV shows using it in their names ("Queer as Folk" and "Queer
Eye for the Straight Guy") and another show playing with viewers assumptions
about who is who (“Playing It Straight”), it seems less likely
to spark concern. Thankfully, I still have "homoeroticism" in the
title, guaranteed to produce a certain level of anxiety and (possibly) prurient
interest. So what's it all about? It's about the way a word like "QUEER"
starts to transform from the snarled epithet for "queer bashers"
as they beat up both actual and assumed homosexuals to being the hip slang
used in TV promos (i.e.: Jay's got "Queer Guy" Carson tonight, plus
Jaywalkers!). It’s about the constantly shifting assumptions about what
it means to “be a man” even as those who hold these assumptions
assume they are timeless and “natural.” It’s about
the way discourses of straight white masculinity constantly attempt to re-position
men as the dominant group in American society even as the discourse limits
their options. It’s about the way “women” as a category
is used to frame assumptions about “men” and masculinity while
claiming an inviolable barrier between the two groups. And it’s
about examining your own assumptions about masculinity and it’s relation
to your life and the way you envision the world.

In the past 30 years,
feminist scholars have helped us to understand the ways cultures construct
ideas and assumptions about gender. For most of this time, feminist scholars
concentrated on concerns about women, or considered men in relation to these
concerns. In the last 10 years, however, feminist scholars have begun to consider
the way masculinity is constructed. At the same time, men wishing to view
masculinity from a male perspective developed "critical men's studies"
(to differentiate their work from past scholarship which had almost uniformly
taken men as the norm, but had not examined them critically), which was in
part inspired by feminism and in part a reaction against it. Finally, the
rise of gay and lesbian studies (which owed its academic and political sensibilities
in part to feminist studies and in part to gay liberation movements) has challenged
the heterocentrist focus on "straight"/"normal" men and
complicated our understanding of sexual identities. This course draws on some
of these insights to consider how images of masculinity are represented in
American film and literature. We will apply these theoretical insights to
our critical readings of cinematic and literary texts to help us understand
the underlying and often contradictory assumptions contained in images of
masculinity. As the course title indicates, we will pay special attention
to the way masculinity is constructed in relation to other men. While we will
examine some historical contexts, we will mainly be considering these texts
as part of the "modern hegemonic sexual regime," in George Chauncy's
words, which "consolidated and enforced a hetero-homosexual binarism."
This course seeks to look beyond the rigidly constructed concepts of "straight"
and "gay," "male" and "female" to consider the
complicated and often messy ways that masculinity is represented in cultural
texts."

As a course in literary
and film interpretation, students will be asked to go beneath the surface
meanings in the texts and to consider their language, structure, and form.
Students who have no interest in or are hostile to this type of interpretive
approach should not take the course. Further, this course considers topics
and issues that some may consider offensive to their sensibilities. Students
should come to the course with an open mind and a willingness to consider
ideas that might seem, well, "queer." At no time, however, will
they be asked or expected to accept any particular ideology or perspective.

Organization of the
Course:On Mondays, we will watch a film in UW2-005. You should have completed
most of your reading for the week by then. Students will then post at
least one comment about the film on the Blackboard discussion board (see below).
On Wednesdays, we will meet in room UW1-041 and discuss the readings and film
for the week. We will then continue our discussion on Blackboard.

Recommended preparationStudents should have taken at least one upper-division course that covers
textual interpretation (especially film or literature). Familiarity with cultural
studies theories regarding gender, power, and discourse is helpful but not
required.

Learning Objectives:Students will advance their interpretive abilities through ongoing classroom
discussion, web-based asynchronous discussion, an in-class group presentation,
and a longer argumentative essay. These activities are meant to be progressive
and continuous, with the shorter assignments and classroom discussion intended
to lay the basis for a successful final essay.

Course Requirements
1. Participation in class discussion (20% of grade).Your individual participation during class is integral to both your and
your peers’ learning success. Learning is a collaborative exercise,
despite the practice of assessing instructors and students separately.
It is my hope that students will develop a sense of shared responsibility
for the course. To accomplish this, students should plan on reading
the material carefully and critically, which means taking analytical notes
(not simply copying content but responding to it, questioning or challenging
it when appropriate). There are a number of ways one might EFFECTIVELY
take notes (written or oral, linear or mapping, etc.) but highlighting or
scribbling in the margins is not one of them. While these activities
can enhance note-taking, they are no substitute for your critical engagement
with the material.

Your notes from the first
two weeks of reading should focus on the analytical tools they offer, rather
than on specific content (this is particularly true for Gay New York.)
For the literature, you should note your observations and interpretive ideas
as you read. During the movie, note key scenes, bits of dialogue, narrative
elements, and interpretive ideas. Bring all texts to be discussed
to class, along with your notes. Your notes will be due on the final
day of the class, and will be graded excellent, good, or unsatisfactory, based
on the diligence demonstrated in taking the notes. Do not dress them
up in a fancy folder, correct grammar or spelling, or type them (unless you
normally type your notes). Simply submit them as is.

You will receive a midterm
and final grade and evaluation based on your in-class participation, which
you will receive via email. Be prepared to make at least one substantive
comment per class that demonstrates your engagement with the readings.

2. Participation in
a web-based discussion board (Blackboard) (20% of grade).
You must post at least two messages on the Blackboard discussion board each
week: one on the film (Tuesday at 10pm following the film) and one on the
reading assigned that week, which may also include some discussion of the
film. The postings should be carefully thought out, clearly written,
and should either initiate a topic or offer a reasoned response to an ongoing
discussion. The posting must deal with the texts from the course
in some way, although you may also include outside texts/events, etc.
Do not simply write that a particular passage or scene was "interesting"
or "confusing." Instead, you should work out what you
thought was interesting or why it was confusing and what questions
it raised. I will let you know if a comment does not count towards
the participation grade. Since this is not a course in aesthetics, your
posting should not be about whether you like a film or novel, but what your
interpretation of the text was. You are also encouraged to participate
in the discussion on an ongoing basis—additional thoughtful postings
will add to your participation grade, although you will not be penalized for
posting twice per week. The discussion board is a good place to work
out ideas for your essay and to become comfortable with the theoretical and
interpretive concepts of the course. You will receive a midterm and final
grade and evaluation based on your in-class participation, which you will
receive via email.

Postings will begin the
second week of class. I will hand out a description of the assignment in class
on Wednesday, March 31.

3. Group Presentation.(20% of grade) Each group will present some initial thoughts about
the film or literary texts to be discussed that day. Sign ups will begin
after class on Wednesday, March 31. Click
here for guidelines to this assignment.

4. 7-10 page argumentative
essay (40% of grade) focusing on at least 3 texts (at least one of them
a novel and film) which addresses one of the themes raised in the course. For the complete explanation, click here.
If you are interested in participating in a two-credit writing course
linked to this course which will involve several visits to the writing center,
some additional pre-writing assignments, and peer critiques of other students’
work, please see me after class.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
OF ANY KIND WILL NOT BE TOLERATED IN THIS CLASS. It is your responsibility
to be knowledgeable about this topic. Please be aware that there are numerous
ways to detect plagiarism beyond the instructor actually identifying the source
of the plagiarism. Plagiarism wastes my time and yours—if you are experiencing
any kind of difficulty in completing an assignment, PLEASE see me as soon
as possible. As with all other courses at UWB, this course is now guided by
the new campus-wide policy on academic dishonesty. All suspected cases of
academic dishonesty will immediately be referred to the UWB Factfinder for
Academic Dishonesty.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES—I
gladly accommodate all documented disabilities as directed by Disability Student
Services at UWB. You must be a documented DSS student to receive accommodations.
I encourage anyone believing themselves to be covered by DSS guidelines to
visit the UWB DSS web page. Accommodations are not "extra help"—they
are actions taken to provide people with disabilities an educational environment
similar to those who enjoy the benefits of a system designed to cater to the
needs of the non-disabled majority.

Books (available at
UW Bothell University Bookstore)George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making
of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940Earnest Hemingway, The Sun Also RisesRaymond Chandler, The Big SleepWalter Mosley, Devil With a Blue DressLeslie Marmon Silko, CeremonyLouis Chu, Eat a Bowl of TeaEdmund White, A Boy’s Own Story

Readings marked with an
asterisk (*) are available through the UWB E-Res page. There
will also be a link through the course web site.